


You'll Have This Place to Call Home (Always)

by incurableromancer



Series: Happiness, Peace and Healing Between the Chaos [2]
Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Broccoli Used As A Weapon, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Found Family, Happy, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, M/M, Nicky is quiet but he cares, Nile Freeman Needs a Hug, Slice of Life, joe and nile are buddies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:15:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26254762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incurableromancer/pseuds/incurableromancer
Summary: Nile finds Nicky far more intimidating than she does Andy or Joe, until she doesn't.Or: found family, and moments of happiness, peace and healing between the chaos.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Happiness, Peace and Healing Between the Chaos [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1907389
Comments: 77
Kudos: 945





	You'll Have This Place to Call Home (Always)

**Author's Note:**

> Uh, yeah, can I get some peace, love and happiness for Nile Freeman, please?

Nile finds Nicky intimidating.

Not in the same way she finds Andy intimidating, with her millennia of experience and no-nonsense approach to everything. She can tell there’s a big, soft heart in there, underneath all the years of pain and fatigue. Sees it when Andy hides her smiles at Nile’s stupid jokes and shines with absolute pride when she succeeds, or better yet, surprises her, shucks her expectations for the better. And if anything, she finds a strange companionship in Andy’s fellow soldier mentality, her devotion to what they do. She finds almost complete comfort in her acquaintance, apart from the fear of letting her down.

It’s completely different from how she finds Joe, who is one of the sweetest, sunniest, most open people she has ever met in her life. She’s convinced that they would have been best friends if they’d met in another world, where they were born in the same century and had been introduced in an art class, that they would have shared jokes and worked together with paintbrushes instead of machine guns. Even now, his quick wit with such a warm touch of dad humour causes her to smile and share and trust and listen and be heard more with him than she has with anyone else in a long time. It helps that he makes the greatest effort to engage her about the culture of the present, her own time. She’ll ask him about long forgotten wars and foods she’ll never know the taste of, will listen to him muse quietly about being queer in different eras and now seeing pride parades, and he will ask her about where she finds such good music when there’s so much out there to choose from (she gets him a Spotify account so quick), about pizza in Chicago versus New York.

It’s not that she doesn’t like Nicky, and she’s fairly certain he at least doesn’t mind her. It’s just that he is so quietly self-assured. He’s so quiet about _everything_. He’s always the first to show her kindness, yes, to usher her to bed after a long day or tell her that she’ll be okay after a big injury, or even to randomly bring her fruits (always fruits) to eat when the jobs overwhelm her and she forgets (she can’t figure out how he always knows when she’s running on empty), but it strikes her in the same way it does when he fights ruthlessly against men to save children, or coldly and calmly discusses motivations with people who have them tied up. It seems as though he has a moral compass that dictates his every move, a concept of right and wrong so honed and nuanced that Nile wonders how he doesn’t carry more exhaustion than even Andy. He’s all about actions, it seems, and he can speak to justify them, but Nile doesn’t think she’s ever heard him make a _joke_.

He’s just so different from Andy, who does what needs to be done, or Joe, who acts straight from the passion of his heart at all times.

She defaults to sarcasm, herself, in order to cope with everything. She knows it’s fine, knows Andy and Joe do it too, but never Nicky, and sometimes in the silence after she says something that can be construed as bitter she worries that she’s offended him. It’s so strange to be alone with him, especially to work, when Nile will mutter and joke through her tasks and he will do little more in response than to smile faintly in a way that still feels nothing but _quiet_. If it were Joe, he’d be joking and laughing with her, and if it were Andy, she’d be getting dry remarks as good as she could give.

Any weirdness is gone when it’s the four of them, when the centuries of camaraderie between the other three makes everything smooth and comforting, when she feels like she’s beginning to slot in perfectly to the group. Her and Nicky even share smiles then, and she thinks about trying to talk to him about books she sees him reading that she remembers enjoying in high school, but the intimidation always stops her.

Or, it did.

They’re holed up in a rural safe house for a few weeks, laying low before they travel to another country. Her and Andy have just gotten back from a supply run (Nile was not about to let Andy pick out all the food for the next few weeks _again_. Not when she thinks bourbon is a food group but that green vegetables are yucky).

It’s late afternoon, and they’re packing all the goods away into cupboards and the refrigerator in companionable silence when an unfamiliar cackle of laughter drifts through the open window alongside the rays of dusty, honey coloured light, and Nile stops in her tracks. Instinctively, she’s reaching for the gun tucked into her waistband. She doesn’t notice the fond look Andy shoots her as she slides carefully against the wall to peer out, heart racing.

“You planning on shooting Nicky, Nile?”

Andy’s words only add to her confusion and utter astonishment as she tucks the gun away again, heart rate slowing, the scene out the window mesmerizing her, much to Andy’s amusement.

Sitting on the porch are Joe and Nicky. Joe’s arm is slung around Nicky’s neck, their long legs stretched out in front of them, Nicky’s left ankle hooked around Joe’s right. She’s fairly certain that the hoodie Nicky has on is the one Joe had been wearing that morning when he’d been scrounging around the kitchen for coffee grounds.

It’s the first time, she realizes, apart from when they sleep, that she’s seen them touch so much.

Nicky has a big, stale hunk of bread in his hands, and he’s breaking off little pieces to throw to the truly massive conglomerate of pigeons that have assembled in front of them. Then he laughs, and Nile realizes that the person she’d heard had been him. She watches his face light up in a way she’s never seen before in response to something Joe’s said to him, has to turn away with the suddenly overwhelming feeling of intruding on a moment of intimacy as they start to lean in.

Andy, box of cereal in hand, is leaning against the counter with her arms crossed and smiling at her like she’s proud of her. Nile realizes that Andy expects her to speak, and her mind goes blank.

“Nicky’s _laughing,_ ” she finally settles on.

She feels kind of stupid as soon as it comes out of her mouth, but Andy’s smile only grows.

“Yeah, he does that sometimes.”

Nile rolls her eyes, leaning down to scoop up a bag full of broccoli that she intends to make Andy eat, trying to phrase thoughts that she never thought she would ever have to say out loud.

“I know, or, I mean- I figured, but…” she trails off, glancing to the window again as Joe’s voice rises, a playful cry and the sound of dozens of wings beating against the air filling the room, before Nicky’s laughter again and a rapid stream of Italian.

“But you’ve never seen them like that.”

Andy’s expression softens, and Nile joins her against the counter. She shakes the bag of broccoli at her in a way she means to be menacing, not even flinching when Andy karate chops it out of her hand and it skids across the counter.

“I’ve never seen them like that,” she agrees.

Andy shakes her head, glancing up at the ceiling.

“It took Booker, I’m gonna estimate, maybe five years before he believed me when I told him that Nicky didn’t hate him.”

The name brings a gust of sadness into the room that Nile has to swallow around.

Andy continues, “he’s a quiet guy, as you know. Very serious, very kind, extremely morally driven, but very guarded in his friendships. He’s Joe’s opposite in many ways, but they’re also very reflective of each other, and have gone through so many things together that their hearts beat now for the exact same reasons.”

She gives Nile a moment to take that in, taking her breath, not for the first or last time, with the ease of communication and articulation of ideas that comes with millennia of life.

“I know Joe shows it more clearly, but I hope you know that Nicky also thinks very highly of you. You came into this life at a particularly stressful time for all of us. I would say it’s a testament to how much he likes and trusts you, and how well you and Joe already get along, that you’ve seen as much of Nicky as you have so soon.”

Nile has to retrieve the broccoli and move to put it in the fridge, then, the eye contact Andy is trying to hold too much for her.

She says, feeling both incredibly grateful to Andy and itching to ease the weight of the moment, “yeah, well. I’m just glad to know that the dude _can_ laugh. He's grumpier than my freshman year history teacher, sometimes.”

Andy smiles, laughs, shaking her head in that familiar way and clapping Nile on the back before turning away to deal with the cereal.

They’re sitting at the table peeling potatoes, Andy trying to explain to Nile how to whistle and laughing at her failed attempts when Joe and Nicky finally come inside. Their fingers are still linked, Joe’s index and middle curled around Nicky’s pinky and ring fingers, and Nile smiles to see it.

Joe makes a face at her, catching onto what she’s trying to do and then directing a high, trilling whistle at Nicky that puts that quiet little smile on his face, already gone shy again. Nile kisses her teeth, scrunching up her face at Joe and shaking her head at Andy’s quiet laughter.

She watches Nicky bump his shoulder against Joe’s before they separate, Joe to pull up a chair at the table with them and Nicky to pick up the knife laying on the counter beside a pile of vegetables waiting on the cutting board.

It’s comfortable, the familiar routine of the four of them preparing food together. Nile takes a moment to enjoy it before taking a deep breath, turning to Nicky’s back, and swallowing down the prickle of intimidation.

“You know, Nicky, Andy and I passed a little used book store on the way into town."

Nicky peers over his shoulder at his name, and Nile has to look down at the knife in her hand before finding her voice again. She misses the warm look that Joe and Andy exchange.

"It had a rarities and restorations section, too, and a bunch of art books, and the vibe seemed really cool- and I was just thinking maybe you might like to go check it out before we skip town.”

Nicky turns completely away from the counter to smile at her, definitely a genuine smile, and Nile is so surprised that she doesn't even process the way Joe presses his lips together to keep from grinning like an idiot down at the potatoes, the way Andy leans back in her chair and openly smiles her proud smile.

Nicky nods at her just once, smile still in place as he turns back to the carrot he’s halfway through dicing.

He says simply, “I’d love that, Nile.”

**Author's Note:**

> title from godspeed by frank ocean


End file.
